Surro Gate
by The Crayon Alchemist
Summary: Reese Leclaire was not expecting her sketch of a human transmutation circle to work. But it does, and as her toll, Truth transfers her to the Other Side and appoints her as his "Surro Gate". She is now burdened with a huge responsibility to save the world(s), is far away from home, and has basically sacrificed her free will.


Disclaimer: I am totally Hiromu Arakawa and am writing fan fiction even though it would make more sense to just produce another manga. Derp.

Author's note: Let me start by saying this is like a trial run. I may not end up posting the first chapter, depending on my schedule. Plus, if I have minimal feedback, why go through the trouble when I'm so busy? I'm not asking for much, I just need to know a few people are reading. I'm sorry if I can't publish the first chapter or it takes really, really long. I truly am.

World: Manga/anime mash-up

**Prologue**

When Reese opened her eyes, she found herself surrounded by stark white. She felt nothing underneath her, and logically with nothing to support her weight she should've been falling. She jolted to a sitting position and was relieved to find a blemish in the white abyss.

Maybe ten feet away from her was a concrete, massive door with engravings of strange symbols and hieroglyphics. An awfully familiar humanoid shape sat at the foot of this door, distinguishable from the scene only because of its grayish aureole. It was no more than a form of vacuous space besides the Cheshire grin it sported.

Reese took off her glasses and put them back on. "My mind makes up the weirdest dreams," she muttered. Yep, the vivid image of a crouching Truth was still there in its creepy-grin glory. He looked surprisingly life-like; further kudos to her imagination.

"You'll realize soon that this is no dream," Truth replied in an amused voice. "I'm guessing your memory of the circle you activated is a bit hazy."

Reese nodded like she was humoring her imaginary friend. "Oh, yes."

"Then allow me."

_Most people, when they're bored in class, draw hearts around their crush's names or stick figures or penises or something. Reese was not most people. Instead, she idly sketched the human transmutation circle off of Fullmetal Alchemist that she knew like the back of her hand._

_When she got home, she lazily dumped her backpack's contents on her bed, then sifted through it until she found her Astronomy binder. She had been meaning to do her homework, but her nearly-complete alchemical circle was cheekily poking out of the pocket when she opened the binder. It was as though it was saying, "Hellooo, brief and fun excuse not to do homework here."_

_Did she believe the drawing would work? No. She simply had a habit of always finishing her drawings. So Reese decided to abandon the space science for now and took the scrap of paper to her desk. Sitting down, she embellished the circle with some of those personal designs she had noticed some alchemists used, and gave it the final touches. When she was done, both of her hands brushed it for half a second._

_In an instant, the mere drawing exploded into brilliant light. She remembered screaming, and then..._

And then, she woke up here. Reese was silent as the gears turned in her head.

"...A very creative dream," she said after a few seconds. "Maybe I smoked something."

"Keep telling yourself that. Now, time for your toll," Truth said, laughter in his tone. Right on cue, the Gate doors parted. Even though she was sure she was dreaming, Reese shrieked and scrambled backward when the sable, spooky denizens of the Gate swept out.

"See you soon," Truth said as his little minions began grappling at Reese.

"Get off! Ow! Don't pull my hair! Nobody touches the hair!" Reese had momentarily forgotten her certainty that she was dreaming, but in the back of her mind, she knew something wasn't right. It shouldn't have hurt when her hair was yanked. Her heart should not be pounding against her chest. You should not be feeling this much in a dream. But she was.

Eventually, of course, the Gate Babies subdued her. As they dragged her inside the Gate, she could hear Truth's eerie and delighted laughter go from an undertone to a racket. It rang in her head, and was seared into her memory.

* * *

Reese now understood the true meaning of Edward's line "My head is going to explode". She squeezed her eyes shut, and would have been swearing if she wasn't biting down on her tongue to keep from screaming pitifully. How long was it going to take before the information made sense?

Finally her head was able to sort it out, and the omniscience felt surprisingly amazing. When Edward had been eager to go back in, she had figured it was his thirst for knowledge. Never did she imagine how nice it felt to be all-knowing, if only for a fleeting moment.

And then it was gone.

The doors slammed, leaving a dazed and confused Reese to stare at them.

"Enjoyed it?" Truth chuckled. "Now, I have an unusual toll for you."

After what she had seen, what she had learned, Reese couldn't deny that this was really happening. Which meant that she was going to lose something probably vital. Which wasn't fair.

She spun around to face Truth. "It was an accident!" Unfortunately, her anger was not enough to mask her fear and her voice shook.

Truth's grin shrunk a little, or maybe it was just her imagination. "There are no accidents. Fate made it happen, and it happened. Your own intentions are irrelevant." He raised his hand when Reese opened her mouth to argue. "And yes, alchemy is not supposed to work in your world. At least, not typically."

"Not typically?" Reese echoed in bewilderment. Did he mean she was here because of a case of bad luck?

"To put it in easier terms... Humanity has trifled with the Gate too much. As a result, it's breaking. The filter isn't working properly, causing energies for alchemy and your physics to pass into the wrong side. You stumbled upon one of those mix-ups. Wrong place at the wrong time."

"So I am paying for bad luck," Reese seethed.

He/she/it ignored her. "What do you think happens then?"

Reese actually thought about it, having retained some of the "Truth". "It stops working altogether?"

"And then both of your dimensions are destroyed because of the imbalance," Truth said, his grin finally gone.

It took a moment for this to sink in, and another moment for her to find her voice. "Can't you fix it?"

"No." Truth slowly rose to a standing position. "At least, not without a host."

She was going to ask what he meant, but that no longer seemed important when Truth unexpectedly split into two. The other Truth charged toward her.

Reese screamed and made a real effort to run, now that she was certain she wasn't dreaming. Of course it was still futile, and Truth's new double collided into her barely a second after she had turned around. At first she thought he was going to grab her, but then his incorporeal body fused into hers.

Reese fell on her back. Her breath left her, but it wasn't because of a hard fall to the ground; there was no ground. Instead, her breath seemed to be drawn from her lungs like something was sucking it in and taking it all for itself. This was followed by a headache that rivaled the one when she was absorbing knowledge in the Gate. And this time, she let out a choked gasp of pain when she was able to breathe again. But before she knew it, the sensations were gone. Reese's eyes shot open, not aware she had closed them. Something felt really off, but she couldn't place it. It was as if.. She was in her body but wasn't? She couldn't explain it, but it was really uncomfortable.

She managed to crane her neck to look up at Truth, the single Truth, who was now standing over her. Reese inhaled a gulp of precious air before trying her voice. "What was that?" she rasped.

"Congratulations, human." Truth spoke with excitement like how he did when someone asked who he was. "You're my new Surro Gate." Reese was too drained to use her voice again. Luckily, Truth sensed this and elaborated. "There's only so much I can do to repair the Gate from within my realm. The best way is to be on Earth and manipulate the humans by natural means to well, handle the Gate more responsibly."

"By... Natural..."

"Nothing that involves my powers, because that will only make it worse. If it's earthly forces causing the damage, it's earthly forces that have to stop it. I could kill a human that's a problem for me by shooting them with a gun, but I can't hypnotize them. Understand?" Reese nodded. "But I can't simply roam the Earth in this form. Once again, I'd be breaking the laws of nature. So I use a host I like to call a Surro Gate. Get it? It's a pun."

Reese was not amused.

"Basically, you're a vessel for me. I can control your body whenever I want."

"Like Body Snatchers?" It was becoming increasingly easier for Reese to speak and the weird feeling of her body being invaded was fading.

"Not quite." She was surprised he got the reference before she remembered Truth knew everything. "I control your body only when I want to. And you'll always be conscious of it."

"That's my price?" Reese said.

"It's not as cheap as it sounds," Truth answered. "Plus, I'm sending you to the other side."

Reese didn't even think as she immediately sat up, turned to face him and shouted, "What?!" She remembered that she was meant to be babysitting her little brother tonight. Her brother Chase was her whole world, and his face instantly flashed in her head.

But Truth didn't give her time to digest this news. "Of course. That's where the most of the activity is, closest to your time anyway."

"Wait, wait a minute." Reese had been trying to think of what the best price could be. She didn't want to give up a limb, or her vision, or anything like that. But it honestly sounded worse to be stranded on the other side of the Gate, never seeing her friends and family again. "I could give up my gate. Edward did that, right?"

Truth responded with a tiny laugh. "Your gate is of no significance to you where you live. Besides, this is an nonnegotiable emergency."

"You could find someone el-"

"See you soon," Truth cut her off, just as the enormous doors opened once more, and countless eyes were staring straight into Reese's soul.


End file.
